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The Foote Files: Dua Lipa

(CBS11) – It’s not every day we find out that we share a birthday with a famous personality. Until a few days ago, I knew that I shared mine with actress Valerie Harper, former CBS/ABC News correspondent Morton Dean, and the famous French composer Claude Debussy. But I now know I share that date with a top pop music singer on today’s scene: Dua Lipa.

Dua Lipa performs at The BRIT Awards 2018 held at The O2 Arena on February 21, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Lipa was born August 22, 1995 in London, the daughter of Albanian parents (last week’s featured artist, Bebe Rexha, is also of Albanian heritage). Her given name means “love” in the Albanian language. She attended Sylvia Young Theatre School before she and her parents moved to Kosovo in 2008 (her father is a singer as well). By age 14, she was posting songs on YouTube performed by such artists as Pink and Nelly Furtado. By 2010, she moved back to London with the intent to be a singer. She has also been a model and has starred in a TV commercial for “The X Factor”. Her music style can be described as synth pop/R&B/dark pop.

In 2015, she began work on her debut album for Warner Music Group. She released her first single, “New Love” and a second one, “Be The One.” She broke into the Billboard Top 100 with “Blow Your Mind (Mwah)” which was #1 on the Billboard Dance Club chart. This past year, she released her self-titled debut album. The most successful song from that album so far is “New Rules”.

Coincidentally, “New Rules” hit the U.S. on hers (and my) birthday, August 22, 2017. Written by Caroline Allin, Emily Warren, and Ian Kilpatrick and running 3:32, the lyrics go like this:

Talkin’ in my sleep at night Makin’ myself crazy (Out of my mind, out of my mind) Wrote it down and read it out Hopin’ it would save me (Too many times, too many times) My love, he makes me feel like nobody else Nobody else But my love, he doesn’t love me So I tell myself, I tell myself

One, don’t pick up the phone You know he’s only calling ’cause he’s drunk and alone Two, don’t let him in You’ll have to kick him out again Three, don’t be his friend You know you’re gonna wake up in his bed in the morning And if you’re under him You ain’t getting over him

I’ve got new rules, I count ’em I’ve got new rules, I count ’em I’ve gotta tell them to myself I’ve got new rules, I count ’em I’ve gotta tell them to myself

Ken FooteKen Foote is the Director of Programming for CBS 11 and TXA 21.
Foote has been in the radio/TV business since 1978 when he joined WGHP-TV in...More fromKen Foote